Need some advice, please help!

Yesterday night, our home vet stopped by and gave us our insulin (Caninsulin) for Felix. Initially I was hesitant as I was under the impression that a slower acting insulin was the right way to go for us newbies. The vet ( super nice) said he had better success with canninsulin and told us to try it out first and if it doesn’t work we can switch to something else, he also initially prescribed a dose of 1 unit but said if I was hesitant I can go 0.5 for a couple days then do the 1 unit with home monitoring.
Long story short, I go to give his 0.5 dose this morning (5am) and the bugger tested 201 , I repeated it and it turned to 230. He also wasn’t eating very much maybe a quarter of his meal so in the end I opted not to give him a shot since neither my boyfriend or I will be home till 12 pm to check on him. Did I make the right choice ?Am I being too conservative? How can I get him to eat more before Insulin? And even 1.5-2 hrs after? I checked for ketones and it was negative ( thank god!). If I can get some suggestions before I do his PM shots that would be great! Also if someone can share some advice on how they schedule their Caninsulin shots and feeding that would be great!

Come back here with any other questions you have or help with anything you don't understand. It's important that Felix have a good meal on board before injecting Caninsulin because it can take effect fairly quickly. Is he normally a slow or picky eater?

I have read the beginners guide to canninsulin and that is what’s concerning me.. I feel he doesn’t eat enough before hand for me to safely administer his insulin. He did go from an all dry diet (where he would scarf everything down) to an all wet diet a few weeks ago.. and since then he’s been really slow at eating even grazing.. it not that he won’t eat the wet food he just takes forever to eat it. This morning at 5 am I tried feeding him and he ate maybe 1/4 of his food of 3 oz and just now before I left for work (630 am) he has eaten it all so I don’t know how I’m going to incorporate his eating habits to administer his insulin.

I think you did the right thing by not giving him insulin this morning. My general rule of thumb with Dave was anything around 200 should have no shot. 0.5 is a very small amount though. My best suggestion is to maybe wait until this weekend or another day when you are home all day to do his first insulin shot. Then you can do a bit of a curve test. Testing every few hours after giving him the shot. Then you can see just how it affects Felix. One of the overarching rules here is better too high for a day than too low for an hour.

If Felix's slow eating is an ongoing issue, you might discuss that with your vet. The depot insulins like Lantus and Levemir are slower in onset and Felix only needs to eat a tablespoon or so before his shot - basically to prove he's willing to eat that cycle.

I don’t know how I would keep my sanity without this supportive community. I will definitely try DavesMom suggestion and start dosage on the weekend when I’m home all day.. In the meantime I’ll try to get Felix to eat more in one sitting ( fingers crossed).

I’m am so frustrated! I just did his PMPS reading it’s 371.. I go to get Felix some food before the insulin shot and of course he doesn’t eat it really maybe eats 1/4 of his 3 oz meal. I know canninsulin requires more food but what can I do? I don’t want to call my vet and tell him I can’t use the insulin when I haven’t even tried.. should I hold off till the weekend until I can get him to eat more normally? I only plan on trying with 0.5 of a unit first to get a gauge on how he will react before I do the 1 unit my vet suggested. Any advice?

Yes I was able to, I haven’t updated my spreadsheet ( a job for tnite) but this is what I got.. +2 (182) +4 (86) +5 (86) +6 (106). Felix’s AMPS was 140 and I wasn’t able to stall so I didn’t give him any insulin. I’m hoping tonight I can get in a +3 reading. Any advice on how I should proceed would be great as this is only a 0.5 U shot and not a 1.0 U recommended by my vet. Thanks!

Yes I was able to, I haven’t updated my spreadsheet ( a job for tnite) but this is what I got.. +2 (182) +4 (86) +5 (86) +6 (106). Felix’s AMPS was 140 and I wasn’t able to stall so I didn’t give him any insulin. I’m hoping tonight I can get in a +3 reading. Any advice on how I should proceed would be great as this is only a 0.5 U shot and not a 1.0 U recommended by my vet. Thanks!

Click to expand...

Those are good numbers. It's possible you might have to try to eyeball 0.25 u if tonight's PMPS is high enough to give insulin.

this is what I got.. +2 (182) +4 (86) +5 (86) +6 (106). Felix’s AMPS was 140 and I wasn’t able to stall so I didn’t give him any insulin. I’m hoping tonight I can get in a +3 reading. Any advice on how I should proceed would be great as this is only a 0.5 U shot and not a 1.0 U recommended by my vet. Thanks!

Click to expand...

Phew! Thank goodness you're home testing, and that you erred on the side of caution and only gave the 0.5IU dose!!! If you haven't already done so, it'd be a good plan to let your vet know about the reduced dose and the results of the mini curve. I second Kris's suggestion that a 0.25IU dose might be safer and, again, recommend discussing this with your vet - along with agreeing a 'no shoot' limit for preshot BG tests (especially as Felix takes his time with eating). Sometimes lowering the dose a little can result in two preshots which are high enough to give insulin and a nadir that isn't too low.

Be sure to keep up the regular ketone testing (especially important while you're trying to sort out a safe dose and may possibly need to skip doses here and there).

For general info, if you find yourself in the position where it's tricky to safely and consistently administer Caninsulin then that's another thing that a switch to Lantus would go a long way toward addressing (can be a lot easier and safer to microdose using an insulin with a 'gentler' action profile than Caninsulin).

I agree with the above, I think it would be best to stick with 0.25 or 0.5 for now, and make sure to keep your vet in the loop about the changes. Once you get more accurate readings and more history on your spreadsheet, you can think about reevaluating if necessary.